Ziryab:Inventor of 3-course meal

Episode 18 – Entertaining in the Time of the Abassids

Islamic Golden Age (2017)

By Eamon Gearon

Film Review

Europe inherited the concept of a three-course meal from eight century Baghdad via European links with Cordoba (in modern day Spain).

At present, most of our information on Islamic banqueting comes from cook and musician Ziryab (789-957 AD), who published cookbooks featuring recipes, poems, and advice about wine selection and etiquette.

Ziryab was born a Kurdish slave in either Persia or Africa. After studying with the best musicians, he obtained a job at the caliph’s palace composing, performing and teaching music. After obtaining his freedom in 813 AD, he left Baghdad to work for the Umayyed caliph Abdul Rachman in Cordoba. He established a palace orchestra with 100 instruments, as well as a music school, while simultaneously acquiring loping expertise in cooking and fashion design. In addition to the three course meal, he’s credited for introducing toothpaste, deodorant, crystal glassware and tablecloths to Europe.

We also have books from that era by doctors of all three Abrahamic religions warning against overeating.

The pre-Islamic Arabic diet consisted of dates, barley, dairy (and meat for those who could afford it). During the Islamic golden age, the urban poor accessed food by going begging to their wealthier neighbors. On holy days, the caliph held beggars banquets.

At his own banquets for the nobility, a single course could feature 300 dishes. The first course was usually soup. The second included meat or fowl that could be fried, boiled in stew with lentils, grilled or baked in a tandoori oven. Rice, noodles and cheese were added to stews and vegetables, such as asparagus, eggplant and cucumber were served as a side dish. The third course could include rice pudding, lemon sorbet, fruit in syrup or honey, pastry dipped in honey and chopped nuts and dates.

During the caliph’s banquets, guests could be entertained by as many as 100 musicians. Al-KindI (born 800 AD – see The Baghdad House of Wisdom’s Lead Translators: Ibn Izhaqand and Al Kindi/) and al-Ghazali (1058-1111AD) wrote the first books on music theory and music’s therapeutic benefits. The Arabic word for music (“muusiiqaa”) is derived from the Greek word “mousiké,” translated a the “art of the Muses”.

The earliest image of the oud was found on a Mesopotamian cylinder seal dating from 3500-32000 BC. During the Islamic golden age, the oud acquired a fifth string. A modern oud can have as many as 12. The first European oud-playing troubadours appeared in 1100 AD in Aquitaine (southern France). The son of William VIII, duke of Aquitaine, became a troubadour after his father took 100 Andalusians prisoner.

At an official banquet, musicians were followed by storytellers, usually reciting tales from 1001 Nights, a collection of folk tales gathered during the rule of Harun Ashid from India, Persia, Cairo and Baghdad, or “The Three Apples,” the world’s oldest detective story.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5756987/5757029